Working as a part time ski instructor

So you’re a ski instructor, or thinking about becoming one? You’ve got another career or job that you don’t want to give up, or work part time, or want to mix ski instructing with other things. Whatever the reason, you want to do the odd week of part time teaching. Fear not, there are loads of opportunities out there for combining ski instructing with other forms of employment.

Working during peak skiing weeks.

If have a full time job and are blessed with enough annual leave to allow you to take a few weeks off (after you’ve given yourself some deserved holiday) then peak week instructing might suit you. Peak weeks tend to be the weeks of the school holidays including Christmas and New Year, February Half Term and the 2 week holiday around Easter (although this can vary school-by-school and spreads the peak weeks out).

There are a number of popular and experienced companies out there that specialise in school ski trips (in Europe) and these are often in high demand of peak week instructors, including Interski, Snowtraxx, Halsbury Ski and Ski 2. If you’re based in the UK, your remuneration package includes return transport to the UK (most likely a coach unless you take a small allowance and book your own flights), accommodation, 3 meals a day, lift pass and some sort of financial pay (amount depends on the company).

PGL ( also offer peak season work but is often in the form of reps, and a number of other companies offer this role too, it’s more of an activity co-ordinator role to make sure everything runs smoothly during busy weeks and all of the activities and ski lessons for groups are booked and attended.

Working as a ski instructor on artificial ski slopes.

There are plenty of people out there who make a full time living instructing on artificial slopes. But as with lots of jobs in the leisure and sport industry, work can often be seasonal and places require a mix of full time and part time staff, often on a casual basis. You can easily work hours on an artificial slope alongside another job, particularly alongside a traditional 9-5. Often artificial slopes are open in the evenings and weekends (as this is when most people can use them) and so you can earn some extra money (for those ski holidays or exams), gain experience and test out whether you might want to do it full time. Often you’ll only need an entry level qualification as well such as BASI 1 so you don’t need to invest so much at the start to start working. Link back to other article when published.

Working part time in a ski resort.

Depending on which ski school you work for, which resort you’re working in and how reliable the weather is, there’s never usually any guarantee of hours each week. Even as a ‘full-time’ instructor you’re likely to have weeks that are much lower in terms of hours of teaching available (but more time for free skiing), but during peak weeks you’ll be in heavy demand and likely working 6-7 days a week every now and again. Some ski schools will look particularly for part time, flexible instructors, often to cover sick days, days off, busy weeks etc. Some ski schools also employ additional instructors over peak weeks and it’s often who you’re in contact with as to whether you find out about it.

Having a ski instructor qualification actually gives you a lot of flexibility in your ability to work and you’ll probably be surprised at the number of people that do it as a part-time or additional job for a whole variety of reasons. The more ski instructors you meet (through networking on sites like Facebook, on courses or through work) you’ll hear of more and more opportunities for part time or casual ski instructor roles as it’s often through word-of-mouth and connections that they come about.

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